Christchurch needs to be a defining moment for Muslims in the West

By Fahim Khondaker

As a Muslim, I have been overwhelmed by the kindness shown towards us since the Christchurch attack and was physically reduced to tears while reflecting on it yesterday.

But I cannot blame anyone for thinking that the public sympathy directed towards Muslims in New Zealand and Australia over the last week is now reaching a point of being a little too much.

Fahim Khondaker speaking with the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

Taking cues from Prime Minister Jacinda Arden and the people of New Zealand, thousands of Australians attended prayer services and vigils to #standtogether in solidarity with the Muslim community.

The media ran countless stories with a positive sentiment on Muslims (and hit pause on the relentless negative ones we are all accustomed to).

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AFL and NRL football clubs including the Brisbane Lions and Brisbane Broncos made significant public statements of support at home games.

Kochie did a strangely aggressive interview with Pauline Hanson on Sunrise. Waleed Aly’s video hit more than 12 million views and Prime Minister Scott Morrison publicly referred to us as his "Muslim brothers and sisters".

There can be no denying that Muslims, who form a mere 2 per cent of Australia’s population, have been showered with love this week – and for that, I am truly grateful.

Many people are now asking whether the Christchurch attack means that everyone has to blindly love Islam and Muslims? Of course not, nobody is seeking that.

It does not need to allay any fears or criticism of Islam that one may have – people are free to dislike the religion. Do we as Muslims like this? No, but we also understand that people are allowed to be a critic of our religion.

All we are hoping for is that people now realise that the manner in which this criticism has been expressed over the past decade has had severe consequences on our mental and physical health – and 51 people lost their lives for it (may they rest in peace).

If we were to push the envelope, we would hope that people would make an effort to understand Muslims and Islam better and be accepting of our right to practice it.

It is, after all, a religion that is centuries old and features well-known prophets such as Jesus, Moses, Abraham and Noah (peace be upon them).

Yet it is misunderstood and frequently misrepresented in 'Western' countries today. Islam shares one thing in common with vaccinations – the internet is flooded with misinformation on the matter.

The Christchurch attack has reminded everyone (or in many cases made them realise for the first time) that Muslims are also human and that we can be and are victims of terrorism too.

As bad as it sounds, it feels almost as if we have had to go through something this horrific to earn our right to sympathy from many quarters of our society. It didn’t matter that thousands of Muslims lost their lives on 9/11 and the countless other terrorist attacks since.

Many Muslims, particularly hijab-wearing women who are easily identifiable as such, have feared for many years that a violent attack on Muslims living in Western countries was inevitable.

The dehumanisation of Muslims and the negative rhetoric towards Islam was only ever going to inspire an attack like this. Most of us had internalised this fear given that we were always told that Islamophobia is something we have made up to get ahead in life.

We were too small in numbers to take on that battle. We focused, instead, on protecting our children from the hatred as best as we could.

There have been terrorist attacks at mosques in Canada and the UK in recent years, but those attacks didn’t elicit the raw emotional response of the Christchurch massacre. Perhaps it was the brazenness of the alleged attacker or the fact that it was so close to home.

Whatever the reason, it has galvanised our society. A line has been crossed and we all agree on that.

This week Australians proved that we can all get along and care for one another irrespective of our religious and/or other differences.

We proved that we can drown out the voices of the minority who spread hatred among us and give courage to the silent majority to politely speak out against hatred in all its forms whenever and wherever they see it.

I have seen many people expressing inclusive views to counter hatred in social media conversations. Before Christchurch, they would have let it be or worse, joined in – their courage gives me hope.

As Australians, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that such behaviour is sustainable in the long term. We have an opportunity to seize the momentum and deliver a significant blow to the messages of hatred before they can rise again.

March 15, 2019, the date of the Christchurch attack, can be our defining moment as a society if we choose it to be.

The great thing is, if we are all involved, we only need to do something very small to have a huge impact.

We cannot afford to be complacent about this, our future and that of our children depends on it.

Fahim Khondaker is a chartered accountant and management consultant working at a multinational professional services firm in Brisbane. He is also actively involved with a number of organisations which promote social cohesion and understanding including Multicultural Development Australia, the Islamic Council of Queensland, and the Queensland Government’s Social Cohesion Implementation Committee. He can be found on Twitter: @Fahim_Khondaker